Memorandum From Kim Hoggard to Ivan Selin, December
1990

A scan of the original document is available for download (PDF, 137 KB, 3pp.)

Source: Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Front Office
Files, 1989-1990 (Lot File 93 D 287), Box 1, PA—Foreign Relations Series 1990.
Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Margaret Tutwiler cleared this
memorandum. The listed attachments were present, but are not posted.

Cited in Toward “Thorough, Accurate, and Reliable”: A History of
the Foreign Relations of the United States Series, Chapter 11, Footnotes 49 and 50

Memorandum From V. Kim Hoggard (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public
Affairs) to Ivan Selin (Under Secretary of State for Management)

December 6, 1990

Subject: Historical Documentary Publication

Our efforts this year within the Department involving the Foreign Relations series (FRUS) have not and apparently cannot produce
a workable solution to the questions surrounding the reform of the project.

Because of this inability to come to agreement internally, we have been
unsuccessful in quieting the public and Congressional criticism. Despite our
efforts, we are seen to be doing nothing.

Should public criticism of the FRUS continue at the boisterous level it has
already attained, I have a very real concern that its target will shift to the
Secretary in such a manner as to question his commitment (and that of the
Administration's) to provide accurate and complete information to the public.
Blame could be placed in his lap for allowing (condoning?) a slow, bureaucratic
approach to the declassification process and hold him responsible for the
release of inaccurate and misleading historical documentation.

I don't think it is an exaggeration -- the success of the criticism on the Hill
has resulted in proposed legislation. The Department incorrectly thought that
“if you ignore it, it will go away,” but Congressional oversight is a fact of
life. The Historical Advisory Committee is a fact of life. The Department must
accept these realities and make them work to our advantage.

In an effort to reinvigorate our efforts to resolve these problems, the PA Bureau
has devised a four-part strategy that will enable us to modernize and improve
the Foreign Relations series, assure the continued
integrity of the publication and meet the concerns of the academic community,
and forestall intrusive legislation by Congress.

This strategy has not been cleared around the building, but we think it is
responsive to the valid concerns of those in the Department and elsewhere who
are involved in some way with the Foreign Relations
project.

The strategy takes into account the questions raised by the Historical Advisory
Committee at their recent meeting, the motivations and insights of the Senate
staffers most involved in drafting the proposed legislation about Foreign Relations, and our own carefully thought out view
of how the Department can confront the troublesome issues and attempt to solve
them.

The proposed four-part strategy includes:

1. An action plan for the modernization of the Foreign Relations series. This plan addresses both the
steps to be taken within the Department and those actions needed by other
agencies. It also provides Department or executive branch undertakings for all
of the operational provisions of the pending Congressional legislation on the
Foreign Relations series. Key Advisory Committee
members have been briefed on the substance of the plan.

2. The text of a draft Presidential memorandum
directing the relevant agencies to cooperate with the Department in assembling,
declassifying, and publishing the modernized Foreign
Relations series and giving the project the necessary priority to get
the job done. The memorandum would also request the Department to aim at opening
its historical files at 30 years. The draft memorandum should be an improvement
on a similar memorandum that was issued by President Reagan in 1985 but lost its
steam by 1988. Senate staffers who briefed the Advisory Committee indicated that
a Presidential directive could be a key element in
deflecting the need for Congressional action.

3. A draft letter from Assistant Secretary Mullins to
the appropriate Senate and House Committee chairmen expressing support for the
general objectives of the pending legislations, willingness to have some general
legislative mandate for the research and publication of the Foreign Relations series, but offering the Department's action plan
and the Presidential memorandum as the only appropriate and workable way of
dealing with the operational aspects of assuring an accurate and complete
published historical record.

4. The outline of those internal Department measures that are necessary to have
the Historical Advisory Committee take on at an early date its heightened
responsibilities to verify the historical accuracy of the published record of
U.S. Foreign Relations.

I have attached a fifth paper that highlights those
issues arising from the four-part strategy that most conflict with current views
and attitudes within Department units concerned with various aspects of the
preparation of the Foreign Relations series.

PA needs your decisions to carry out our proposed four-part strategy:

1. Your approval of the action plan and its implementation in the Department and
elsewhere.

2. Your approval of the draft Presidential memorandum including its provisions
for you to chair occasional inter-agency meetings to promote priority for access
to and declassification of other agency documents for the published series.

3. Your guidance on the steps to be taken to obtain early signing of such a
Presidential memorandum.

4. Your review of the draft letter to Congress.

5. Your instructions on the steps necessary to facilitate the work of the
Historical Advisory Committee.

We feel we have tried to work within the Department for action. However,
bureaucratic foot-dragging has impeded any hope of getting Department-approved
proposed legislation to the Hill in the new year without your impetus.

We appreciate very much your involvement in this issue and your efforts to reach
a solution.